University professor insists:

“We need two million hectares of grassland!”

The Nature Conservation Association hosted a symposium on Thursday afternoon. On the occasion of its 111th anniversary, the focus was on the topic of "land consumption". Grassland protection and building land activation played the biggest role of the evening.

The gap between the economy, politics and environmental protection is widening. Attempts to reconcile all of this have been failing for years. To mark the 111th anniversary of the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, it hosted a symposium on Thursday afternoon on the topic of "Land consumption and spatial planning in the age of global crises".

In a democracy, politicians have to make decisions. I wish they would make fact-based decisions without misjudging the facts.

Gernot Stöglehner, Experte für Raumplanung, Umweltplanung, Bodenordnung von der BOKU Wien

Bild: JHK

Gernot Stöglehner from BOKU Vienna said as the event's closing speaker that Austria would have up to two million hectares of grassland too little in the future. "So the question should not be how much building land will be needed in the future, but rather how much grassland?"

"Politicians should make fact-based decisions"
 The population is growing, Austria needs land for food, to tackle the climate crisis, for the economy and for biodiversity. Austria still has 2.6 million hectares of grassland. It needs 4.5 million. Activating existing building land is the order of the day. Densification is a matter of course.

"In a democracy, politicians have to make decisions, I wish they would make decisions based on facts and science without misjudging the facts." This states that granaries will dry out, 20 percent crop loss is to be expected for Austria and floods, as in Lower Austria, will increase due to the construction.